Colchester wrestlers grasp for title

Experienced Lakers eager to test Mt. Anthony

Dec. 10, 2010

Colchester senior Luke Porter shoots a double-leg takedown on head coach Jason Benoure during an early-season practice. Porter missed most of last season after tearing the ACL in his right knee, but is back to help CHS build on its fourth-place showing at last year's Vermont state championships. / ADAM WHITE, for the Free Press

Varsity Insider blog

COLCHESTER — Jason Benoure’s memory of winning a Vermont high school wrestling state championship is dominated by a single image, still clear in his mind almost a decade later.

“I will never forget stepping onto the mat at Mount Anthony,” Benoure said. “The packed gym, all the noise from the fans, the single spotlight shining down — it gave me goosebumps.

“That kind of atmosphere is what you wrestle for.”

Nine years after capturing the state crown as a junior 130-pounder for the Lakers, the Colchester head coach will lead his troops back into the belly of the beast. This year’s Vermont championships will once again take place at Kates Gym, home of the Mount Anthony Patriots and their national-record 22 straight state titles — giving Benoure’s boys a chance to measure their vastly improved program against the Green Mountain model for wrestling success.

“If you’re a high school wrestling team in Vermont, I think you can’t help but look at Mount Anthony and say, ‘That’s where we, as a team, want to be,’” Benoure said. “Last year, we did well enough at states to see that we’re getting there, and that we need to keep working hard.”

Six Lakers garnered All-State honors at last year’s Vermont championships in Vergennes, helping Colchester earn a fourth-place finish behind Otter Valley, Spaulding and Mount Anthony. Benoure saw two of his grapplers, Nick Eddy and Devon Grammo, reach the state finals before settling for second place. Chris Lash took third at 140 pounds, and Eric Decker (fourth at 285) and Elias Carter (sixth at 189) also wrestled back to placement matches.

All six wrestlers return this season, giving Colchester as good a shot as anyone at challenging the state’s Goliath from the south.

“These guys all have what it takes to win a state title,” Benoure said. “But the way we see it, they’re going to have to beat Mount Anthony kids to do it. Do we have a strong enough team to knock (the Patriots) off? Honestly, I don’t think so. But we can at least push them and build on what we did last year.”

The Laker grapplers know exactly what it takes to beat Mount Anthony, as well as what it feels like to fall short. Lash won a state title as a freshman at 112 pounds by beating Patriot Mike Bradley, himself a defending state champ. Eddy hammered out to a 5-0 lead over Mount Anthony’s Chris Schramm during last year’s 103-pound finals, only to end up on the short end of a 12-9 final score.

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Both of those Lakers are well aware of what to expect at Kates Gym on Feb. 5 and 6, on and off the mat.

“As a team, we need to pick up the intensity,” Lash said. “I miss the feeling of being a state champ; I’d like to come back this year and dominate the mat, to redeem myself.”

“We know it’s going to be rowdy at states,” Eddy said. “But a lot of us have been on the big stage before and know how to handle it. We just have to keep our heads clear, go in and give it our all.”

Last year’s success has fueled a change in mindset for Colchester, one that every team that rises above being merely competitive must go through. Benoure said that the wrestlers have taken a proactive role in figuring out what weight classes they can fill to best suit the team, and a number of Lakers spent the offseason training with the VT Elite wrestling club out of South Burlington.

“We got a lot more mat time this summer, and we came back stronger and with better technique,” Decker said. “People can see that we have a lot of potential. We can be one of the top teams in the state, as long as we keep pushing ourselves.”

All the way into a single spotlight, shining down at the very center of the Vermont high school wrestling universe.